The Two Disciples at the Tomb, c. 1906

The son of a prominent minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, expatriate Henry Ossawa Tanner was perhaps the most renowned American painter of religious works at the turn of the 20th century. Painted in Tanner’s Parisian studio, The Two Disciples at the Tomb depicts a scene inspired by the Gospel of Saint John in which Peter and John arrive at Christ’s tomb, only to find it empty. The bearded Peter looks downward with a somber gaze, but John appears transfixed, his angular face bathed in a golden light that signifies the presence of Christ’s spirit. Like other religious paintings by Tanner, this work focuses on the individual’s response to a miraculous event.